Life can sometimes feel like you are on a treadmill, and you can´t stop.
It was the last week before vacations and I was making a meticulous list of all the assignments to had to complete. As I sorted out my classes in my head, grades popped in. What if I didn't get the grades that I wanted to get a 6 or 7 in all my classes. I NEEDED to get good grades to get to the college I wanted, a college that would look fitting to a successful job. That way I could be triumphant, because I wouldn't need anything and I could have my own family. That same week I stayed up late until I couldn't hold my eyes open for more than five seconds all because I was perfectioning projects. Being on the “treadmill” is just like that… Your head can´t stop thinking and you keep studying. Your heart doesn't stop beating and you keep running. You keep studying and competing just to get the best grades. You keep running and competing to win the race. You're waiting to reach success and finally get the life you wanted. You're waiting for the next mile and finally finish the race the way you wanted. Are you in this “treadmill” because you want to reach success OR because you won´t be fulfilled and actually be genuinely happy? Most people would start to question their motives after reading this. The problem is that you are always striving for the “next mile” which is never going to end or once you reach it there is one more mile to go. Just like school, you study to get high grades, but really don't learn anything because you study it for your test ➔ to get to a good university ➔ to get a superior job ➔ to have a maintained family. You never stop working until you are about 60 years and perhaps you retire, but the treadmill is an addiction, and it turned into a routine. You keep running but your heart and feet can't keep up and well, you die, but you weren't actually happy, because you were waiting to reach your goal or happiness but there was always one more mile to go. Stop running away from problems and pressures that are CHASING YOU because you are in a stationary position and won't be able to get away from them. But get off the “treadmill” and start running by yourself to CHASE YOUR GOAL and do something you're passionate about at the same time because then you are not fulfilled until you reach your target. Being on a treadmill doesn't mean that you are constantly working, it means that you are doing something that you dislike just to get the favorable outcome or what other people expected of you. If it's your passion you are constantly working on, it's okay because you would be doing something that makes you be happy not for a short period of time but actually being happy not feeling happy.
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As I was skimming the book shelf waiting for my 8 hour flight to depart, a simple white book catched my immediate attention. The title read “It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be” I stared at it as if I was in a trance, not moving yet thinking… How many times had I come accross a situation where I thought I wasn't good enough to complete the task because the skill required “wasn´t there”. English period was just about to end, but then Mr.Scoular´s words pierced my mind, “Your next project is to right a short vignette about any place you want using all five senses.” Suddenly I felt that I was back in my chair sitting in my 8th grade class, my elbow almost slipping from the table. As my eyes shifted upwards to see Mr. Bossung handing me the same assignment that I was just given, that when my excited face turned into a frown and a head full of confusions. A six out of ten marked in my paper. I thought I done a good job, maybe I wasn't good enough at writing. My mind went back to reality, I wouldn't let this memory haunt my descriptive writing forever, I decided I would make myself proud by the end of the assignment. And by the end I did, it is one of the works I am most proud of, I even read it from now and then to keep my motivation up. We, humans often take the easy path when we feel too challenged. That way is better because we can succeed with no attempt of effort, and stay in our comfort zone. Even though we are gaining a success, we are losing an opportunity. Not just any opportunity, but one that would allow you to grow, not only academically but mentally. Step outside the safe and become part of the adventure. If you believe in yourself you can do it, it doesn't matter where you are start, even if you´re standing at the bottom. You can get anything you set your mind to and finally reach that goal you have been waiting for. You need to stop undervaluing yourself and because you are not qualified. You CAN grow, just have the correct mindset. Value learning as a goal, even if you need to encounter a few initial errors, it's okay that will make you fail better next time, just like I did the second time I was given the english assignment. When you feel like you're failing just come back with better strategies, realise your mind from negativity and turn it into positivity. That way you will turn the unthinkable assignment into something thinkable and possible. Good things do happen to those who just wait, but if you go for them then extraordinary events happen. I raised my head slowly and there he was, my teacher looking at me with an indignant face, his eyebrows forming a "v". “What are you doing?” he asked. “I am experimenting with adobe illustrator” I replied confused. “You'll have to do that at home, right now just finish your logos.” Thats how it all starts. And as Peter Gray states “What school is all about- suppressing curiosity and enthusiasm so students can complete assignments in a timely manner.”
I am one of the 18 students to participate in a new program at my school, Innovation Academy. This program enforces a different type of education, pushing you to innovate and solve problems in new ways while giving you a more independent personality. We were instructed to do a independent project of any type we want based on our passions and hobbies. I now have a dilemma, being so focused on school and its boundaries I am in a difficult position to explore my passions. Even though I have some interests, such as photography or architecture, I am scared to explore them in depth because of the school´s constantly same instructions and limitations. To understand the process of this situation there are five defined stages... Like stated before schools don't ignite enthusiasm or broadcast further insights. Children nowadays are not given the suitable freedom for the right educations, they are not free to pursue their own interests. They are given ONE problem and only ONE solution because another solution is just incorrect. All activities, skills or traits that require are abolished or derailed by schools. This including curiosity, playfulness and meaningful conversation. These factors motivates children to be in quest for new knowledge and then experiment and use these new acquired skills. Because of the absence “They don't explore alternative ways to solve the problem (even if they are allowed to, which they often are not), and they therefore fail to learn all the dimensions of the problem or the full power” Due to all these boundaries students start to loose interest in most school subjects. This can even be verified in large scale studies. Though research made in schools more democratic and with self directed learning interests seem to increase due to the fact that they mostly specialize in the part that they most like in each subject. As they lose most interests they are not eager or motivated to find new activities or skills to develop. When it comes to the day then you are given autonomy in a project or decision. For instance, choosing your career or in my case the independent project, you are trapped in a problem. In which you don´t know what to do because you have been enclosed in school boundaries. Always having a desire to innovate and never having the chance to. So having to be a risk taker and take on something you are not used to can be scary. You are scared of doing things another way because you were always given ONE solution. The thing is that you have to overcome it and reach the goal. Right after that is when the fear of failure comes in. Like I mentioned you are frightened by the idea of stepping outside those walls built my schools. So going into something now know implants the idea of failure. It states that when you fail you need to take a new project because it just wasn't for you. Though what lots of people don´t know is that all success starts with failure. Because without out it you will never get better because you wouldn't be able to learn new things if you haven't tried them. Exactly this idea is not explained and taught at many schools. So...since this fear of failure is created students don´t want to be independent and autonomy is suppressed forming a constant battle between autonomy and failure. |
Cristina BarclayCurrent eleventh grader at Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt, taking the IB diploma program. Archives
May 2016
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